Health Policy urology

Organizations that promote national medical policy standards and lawmakers in several states have recently considered proposals that would direct scrutiny upon surgical procedures undertaken in infancy to assign or confirm gender.

The new draft recommendation on PSA screening from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which improves the previous D rating for all men to a C rating for those ages 55 to 69 years, has been met with guarded approval by three of the key national organizations representing urologists.

Hundreds of urologists visited Capitol Hill last month as part of the Joint Advocacy Conference, where they met with members of Congress on key issues affecting health care, urology, and urology practices. They did so at a historic time, as lawmakers sought to enact Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

President Trump’s campaign promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act has proved to be easier said than done as Republicans who control Congress have been unable to devise a workable and acceptable replacement for the controversial health care law.

The Affordable Care Act's controversial contraceptive coverage mandate requires most private health plans to provide cost-free coverage of female contraception. Reproductive health advocates in many states are pressing for new laws that include vasectomy in those covered services.

In the wake of heated criticism about lengthy wait times for veterans’ care at Veterans Health Administration hospitals, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has moved to allow advanced-practice registered nurses to practice to their full authority without physician oversight and regardless of individual state law in VA facilities.